Sask. residents must decide pipeline regulation: Goodale

Sask. residents must decide pipeline regulation: Goodale

Governments and energy companies “need to go to school” on the effects of oil spills, but it’s up to residents of Saskatchewan to decide how pipelines are regulated, says Canada’s public safety minister.

“That is an issue that the people of Saskatchewan will have to examine, whether the current methodology is appropriate or whether something of a more arm’s-length nature would be more effective,” Liberal MP Ralph Goodale told reporters Thursday.

The roughly 25,000 kilometres of licensed pipelines in Saskatchewan are regulated by the provincial energy ministry.

In a 2014 review of the province’s pipeline regulatory system, Judy Ferguson found only two of seven recommended improvements had been implemented.

It remains unclear what caused a Husky pipeline to rupture in July.

Goodale declined to comment on the province’s reaction to the leak that spilled up to 250,000 litres of heavy crude into the North Saskatchewan River.